[javascript] Exposing the current state name with ui router

I'm trying to implement a language switcher where if a user clicks on "de" from any given page on an "en" side - it takes them to that page of the "de" side. If I console.dir the $state parameter, it exposes the values I'd want with the "current" property of the given $state. If I try to console.dir the $state.current to focus on the values I want, it only gives the parent state property (my current views are nested).

My current thinking is, I'm on url/en/content, and dynamically I can then have my lang navigation dynamically load the appropriate destination points into some kind of data attribute, pick those up with a custom directive where I'd initiate a "go to" and set my preferedLanguage value per angular-translate.

The key issue at the moment is exposing that $state name - again, when simply browsing $state the current object gives the values I'd want, but $current.state directly only gives the parent state.

If anyone has a better suggestion of how to do this (in a angular way - no custom cookie junk) I'm happy to take suggestions.

Thanks!

Update! CODE SAMPLES:

Object reference of my states:

var urlStates = {
        en: {
            home: {
                name: 'home',
                url: '/en',
                templateUrl: 'templates/'+lang+'/home.html',
                abstract: 'true'
            },
            home_highlights: {
                name:'home.highlights',
                url: '',
                templateUrl: 'templates/'+lang+'/home.highlights.html'
            },
            home_social:
            {
                name: 'home.social',
                url: '/social',
                templateUrl: 'templates/'+lang+'/home.social.html'
            },
            home_map:
            {
                name: 'home.map',
                url: '/map',
                templateUrl: 'templates/'+lang+'/home.map.html'
            }

        };

My States:

$stateProvider
        .state(urlStates.en.home)
        .state(urlStates.en.home_highlights)
        .state(urlStates.en.home_social)
        .state(urlStates.en.home_map);

        $locationProvider.html5Mode(true);

})

Controller:

.controller('LandingPage', function($translate, $state){
    this.state = $state;
    this.greeting = "Hello";
});

And Lastly, the output I see in the dom:

With this.state = $state;

{
    "params": {},
    "current": {
        "name": "home.highlights",
        "url": "",
        "templateUrl": "templates/en/home.highlights.html" },
        "transition": null
}

With this.state = $state.current

{
    "name": "",
    "url": "^",
    "views": null,
    "abstract": true
}

Answering your question in this format is quite challenging.

On the other hand you ask about navigation and then about current $state acting all weird.

For the first I'd say it's too broad question and for the second I'd say... well, you are doing something wrong or missing the obvious :)

Take the following controller:

app.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope, $state) {
  $scope.state = $state;
});

Where app is configured as:

app.config(function($stateProvider) {
  $stateProvider
    .state('main', {
        url: '/main',
        templateUrl: 'main.html',
        controller: 'MainCtrl'
    })
    .state('main.thiscontent', {
        url: '/thiscontent',
        templateUrl: 'this.html',
        controller: 'ThisCtrl'
    })
    .state('main.thatcontent', {
        url: '/thatcontent',
        templateUrl: 'that.html'
    });
});

Then simple HTML template having

<div>
  {{ state | json }}
</div>

Would "print out" e.g. the following

{ 
  "params": {}, 
  "current": { 
    "url": "/thatcontent", 
    "templateUrl": "that.html", 
    "name": "main.thatcontent" 
  }, 
  "transition": null
}

I put up a small example showing this, using ui.router and pascalprecht.translate for the menus. I hope you find it useful and figure out what is it you are doing wrong.

Plunker here http://plnkr.co/edit/XIW4ZE

Screencap

Use Timeout

$timeout(function () { console.log($state.current, 'this is working fine'); }, 100);

See - https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router/issues/1627

In my current project the solution looks like this:

I created an abstract Language State

$stateProvider.state('language', {
    abstract: true,
    url: '/:language',
    template: '<div ui-view class="lang-{{language}}"></div>'
});

Every state in the project has to depend on this state

$stateProvider.state('language.dashboard', {
    url: '/dashboard'
    //....
});

The language switch buttons calls a custom function:

<a ng-click="footer.setLanguage('de')">de</a>

And the corresponding function looks like this (inside a controller of course):

this.setLanguage = function(lang) {
    FooterLog.log('switch to language', lang);
    $state.go($state.current, { language: lang }, {
        location: true,
        reload: true,
        inherit: true
    }).then(function() {
        FooterLog.log('transition successfull');
    });
};

This works, but there is a nicer solution just changing a value in the state params from html:

<a ui-sref="{ language: 'de' }">de</a>

Unfortunately this does not work, see https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router/issues/1031

Its just because of the load time angular takes to give you the current state.

If you try to get the current state by using $timeout function then it will give you correct result in $state.current.name

$timeout(function(){
    $rootScope.currState = $state.current.name;
})

I wrapped around $state around $timeout and it worked for me.

For example,

(function() {
  'use strict';

  angular
    .module('app')
    .controller('BodyController', BodyController);

  BodyController.$inject = ['$state', '$timeout'];

  /* @ngInject */
  function BodyController($state, $timeout) {
    $timeout(function(){
      console.log($state.current);
    });

  }
})();